Society (General/Chat)

DELHI: One of the Indian men convicted of the Delhi gang rape of 2012 has claimed that his 23-year-old victim was to blame for her sexual assault and murder in an interview for a BBC documentary to be aired on International Women’s Day. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” he said, speaking about the brutal attack against victim Jyoti Singh. Sing also claimed that had the victim not fought back, the six-strong gang would not have beaten her with iron bars, which led to her death two weeks after the assault on a minibus. “When...

The jungle-choked remains of a "lost city", abandoned by a mysterious civilisation several centuries ago and long fabled for reports of its gold and "monkey children", have been uncovered in the depths of the rainforests of Honduras. A team of American and Honduran archaeologists, aided by the bushcraft and survival skills of former British SAS soldiers, has just emerged from one of the most remote locations on Earth with news of their stunning discovery. The expedition was seeking the site of the legendary "White City", also known as the "City of the Monkey God", a goal for Western explorers since...

A 27-year-old man thought he was on his way to an Algiers Point bar for drinks with the man he called to pick him up from the Algiers ferry landing Sunday afternoon (March 1). But that ride ended abruptly, New Orleans police said, when a comment about a casino trip left the man beaten and robbed. The violent series of events began around 4:30 p.m. when police said the 27-year-old called Marc Brown and asked for a ride from the ferry landing.

Back in September, when it first went public, and when it quickly became the talk of the TV studio currently located on the obsolete NYSE floor in New York, a constant source of China buzz, not to mention making Jack Ma China's richest man, Alibaba's market cap soared as high as $250 billion, making it one of the top 10 most valuable companies by market cap. ... and then the headaches began, following news that China's government may crack down on what was dubbed Alibaba's "illegal operations", which sent its stock sliding to the point where not even one CNBC...

What would you say if you found out that our public schools were teaching children that it is not true that it’s wrong to kill people for fun or cheat on tests? Would you be surprised? I was. As a philosopher, I already knew that many college-aged students don’t believe in moral facts. While there are no national surveys quantifying this phenomenon, philosophy professors with whom I have spoken suggest that the overwhelming majority of college freshman in their classrooms view moral claims as mere opinions that are not true or are true only relative to a culture. What I...

There are countless television shows that far outstayed their welcome, becoming almost unwatchable self-parodies by the end. The Drew Carey Show, The Office, and Scrubs are three extreme examples of this phenomenon. As series drag on, show fans become show writers and what ends up happening is effectively fanfic on screen. It’s why The Simpsons still makes the same jokes again and again. Parks and Recreation isn’t unwatchable yet, but boy is it close. This is a shame. While the series was never great, it was still one of the most consistent sitcoms of the last decade. All the characters...

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews saw a nefarious aim behind Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, claiming his discussion on the Iranian nuclear talks represented nothing less than a “takeover attempt” by a foreign leader. “Let me get to the heart of this now,” he told host Thomas Roberts. “This man, from a foreign government, walked into the United States legislative chamber and tried to take over U.S. foreign policy.” “Mm-hmm,” Roberts said approvingly. “He said, ‘You should trust me, not your president, on this,’” Matthews continued. “‘I am the man you should trust, I...

As part of the White House response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, President Barack Obama emphasized the importance of preventing access to guns “for those who would commit acts of violence.” In order to accomplish that objective, the Administration announced that it would engage the regulatory process to close loopholes in the background check system for purchasing firearms.

The beautiful thing about science (when itâ€™s conducted properly) is that multiple experts and laboratories in any field can match their findings against each other, peer review their work and subject competing theories to rigorous testing. That is, of course, providing youâ€™re not doing work in climate research. In that case, if you come up with any figures which fly in the face of established Eco-Church doctrine, itâ€™s time to stack up some kindling and burn the witch. A week ago, the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Washington Post ran stories repeating claims made by long-time Greenpeace staffer...

The 28 EU member states gave their final approval to new rules regarding plastic bags on Monday. Member states are required to reduce the use of flimsy plastic bags by 80 percent by 2025. However, they are given a choice on how to achieve that goal. According to the new rules, EU countries are permitted to introduce extra taxes on plastic bags or even ban single-use plastic bags on a national level.Margrete Auken, a Danish Member of the European Parliament from the Green Party, pushed the new legislation through and called the approval “a historic breakthrough in tackling the pervasive...

ities: The problem with socialism, Margaret Thatcher once noted, is you eventually run out of other people's money. In progressive Chicago, that's hit home as Moody's has cut its credit rating to two grades above "junk." Chicago's finances are staggering under the weight of an unfunded pension liability that Moody's Investors Service has estimated at $32 billion, eight times the city's operating revenue. Chicago has a $300 million structural deficit. And Illinois law requires the city to up its 2016 contributions to its police and fire pension funds by $550 million. "This is an unfortunate wake-up call for anyone still...

Los Angeles (AFP) - Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was taken to hospital for the third time in less than a month Monday, as he made his latest appearance in court. The 49-year-old, who has complained of medical problems since he was arrested in late January over a fatal hit-and-run incident, said he has lost 35 pounds in weight and is blind in one eye. "At this time, I don't know if I can proceed," he told LA Superior Court judge James Brandlin at Monday's hearing, which was cut short after Knight said he had fired his attorneys. Knight was...

Domestic abuse leaves a spouse bruised, battered, possibly bleeding internally, with broken bones and a severely damaged psyche. Where does he go? Yes, he; the battered man, beaten by a woman who claims to love him. During a recent discussion on my Newstalk1010 radio show about domestic abuse, a caller named Robert took exception to the media always, in his assessment, portraying the man as the perpetrator and the woman as the victim. Robert suggested someone should do an ad campaign portraying the Â“other sideÂ” of the debate. I challenged him by saying: Â“Why donÂ’t you do it?Â” So he...

When considering what to get Robert Mugabe for his birthday, one first must understand that Zimbabwe’s president is a man who demands the finest. His birthday parties don’t cost hundreds of thousands; they cost millions. His parties aren’t attended by thousands, but by tens of thousands. And they don’t eat elephant; they eat baby elephant. This was the predicament in which one local landowner named Tendai Musasa found himself when figuring out what he would get Mugabe for his 91st birthday party, which cost $1 million and was held this past weekend. “We regard him as our father,” Musasa said...

Over the past six years, concerns about the possibility of restrictive gun legislation have sparked unprecedented spikes in sales of firearms and ammunition. And state wildlife agencies, all benefiting from funding flowing from federal Pittman-Robertson excise taxes on those items, are still raking it in. But high demand for some popular ammunition caused huge manufacturer backlogs that led to sharp increases in wholesale and retail prices and left many store shelves empty of the most popular ammunition, particularly centerfire and rimfire rifle ammo.Over the past few months, that crunch has begun to ease. But problems finding ammunition - especially ammunition...

Just a few weeks ago, the idea that Apple might make a car seemed like an outlandish rumour. Today, it's accepted by many as gospel. Numerous reports have filtered through in recent days, providing more detail on Apple's automotive ambitions. Of course, nothing has been confirmed yet. The Apple Car would be a massive, multi-year undertaking. But here's what we've heard so far: It's called Project Titan. The detail comes via a report from the Wall Street Journal. It's an electric car. This puts the company in competition with Tesla, which develops cutting edge electric-powered vehicles. VC and entrepreneur Jason...

Hardy souls who shivered and shoveled their way through February in the Northeast now have evidence of just how brutal the weather was, with record cold in at least eight cities and record snowfall in Boston. “We’re the standout globally,” said Art DeGaetano, director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. “It’s colder in Siberia, but we’re the farthest below normal.” The climate center shows the New York cities of Buffalo, Syracuse, Binghamton and Ithaca had their coldest months ever. The average temperature was 10.9 degrees in Buffalo, beating the 1934 record of 11.4°. The normal average temperature...

Minnie Minoso, the hugely popular All-Star outfielder from Cuba who became the major league’s first black player out of Latin America and a treasured figure in the history of the Chicago White Sox, died on Sunday in Chicago. His true age was never entirely clear, but by an account in his autobiography, he would have been 89 when he died.

Guests Cats' Roundtable national edition 9:00AM schumer: Senator Charles Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York, a Democrat. First elected in 1998 by a margin of 55%–44%. Schumer was re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a margin of 66%–33%. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Schumer served in the US House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999, representing New York's 16th congressional district, Manhattan. A native of Brooklyn and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly, serving from...

Marlene Nelson loved teaching, but after 35 years she was ready to retire the first chance she got. When she became eligible for her pension at age 55 because of an early-retirement incentive known as the Rule of 90, she and her husband sold their home in Glenwood, Minn., and moved someplace warm. "I really would've liked to have taught a little longer, but I just wanted to go out liking my job," Nelson said. She and her husband have spent the past four years living modestly off their two pensions in Arizona. This kind of Utopian early retirement is...

A high school honor roll student encouraged her friend to kill himself before raising thousands of dollars for suicide prevention, according to authorities. Michelle Carter, 18, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Conrad Roy III, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his idling truck in Fairhaven, Massachusetts last July. When Roy texted Carter that he wasn't sure he should take his life and had climbed out of the vehicle, she allegedly texted him: 'Get back in.' Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy's suicide, was indicted on February 5 and arraigned on an...

Lets assume Hillary runs.And keep in mind that she can't sell her book, can never draw a massive crowd,well only in deep blue liberal districts. The GOP does have a chance to retake four of five states back from Obama to win in 2016.Can anyone see Hillary filling stadiums in the manner that Palin and Romney did? Especially in Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida. Those are the states the Republican nominee needs to flip. So does Hillary really expect to fill halls/arena's and stadiums in those crucial purple states? Will she have to give away free gifts at the...

[Summary: Progressive education tends to celebrate creativity at the expense of knowledge and the traditional curriculum.] Creativity has been a big theme in progressive education for more than 75 years: We are constantly lectured that kids need music, art, theater, etc. This theme is now metastasizing into an oppressive dogma. But why? Ken Robinson, the guru of creativity, is famous for saying “We are educating people out of their creative capacities.” The premise seems to be: if kids do arty things, they will end up being artists. Empirically untrue. Conversely, Robinson says that if children do something rigorous and academic,...

The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, the Episcopal priest whose book "Are You Running With Me, Jesus?" took prayer out of church onto the city streets in a slangy vernacular not found in Sunday missals, has died. He was 91. Boyd died Friday under hospice care in Los Angeles from complications of pneumonia, according to Robert Williams, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Boyd delivered riffs on life's grittier problems — the white racists afraid of integration, or teenage girls who get pregnant — with a candor that was rarely heard from a priest leading a community at prayer.

Three people have been diagnosed with leprosy in Florida and some of the cases are thought to be linked to armadillos. Health officials in Volusia County said that the cases are not related, though two of those who have been diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, since October had been in contact with nine-banded armadillos.

**SNIP** Homelessness is a primary driver for LGBTQ teens turning to survival sex, according to the report. It cites national statistics showing that as many as 50 percent of homeless or runaway youth trade sex for shelter or for money to provide shelter for themselves, and that 48 percent of transgender people involved in sex work overall also report experiencing homelessness. A 2007 study of LGBTQ teens in New York revealed that LGBTQ youth were seven times more likely to have traded sex for shelter than heterosexual teens, and that transgender teens were eight times more likely. Researchers also found...

11 silly things that some atheists say. February 27, 2015 Â· by James Bishop Â· in Articles, Atheism. Â· Introduction: The atheist that this blog article is briefly referring to is the fundamentalist head-in-the-sand, fingers-in-their-ears type, which contrary to atheism makes up the majority of the religion hating New Atheists. My last point, point 11, addresses Stephen Hawking but I want to make it clear that I do not view him as a fundamentalist atheist like Richard Dawkins, or Sam Harris would be. Although I, alongside many, disagree with Hawking and his conclusions, I donÂ’t take anything away from his...

Earl Lloyd, who became the first black player to appear in an N.B.A. game when he took the court for the Washington Capitols in October 1950, three and a half years after Jackie Robinson broke modern major league baseball’s color barrier, died on Thursday in Crossville, Tenn. He was 86 ... When the N.B.A., going into its fifth season, prepared for its April 1950 draft, many club owners continued to resist signing a black player. Apart from the prejudices of the time, some owners feared that Abe Saperstein, the owner of the all-black, crowd-pleasing Harlem Globetrotters, would pull them from...

“Discuss in the dark” Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, “Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good–” At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they...

I hate texting. I hate the way it restricts me. It's great that I can stay in touch while on the road, but it's a pain in the butt. I can't reference my thoughts with links that would generally be a few "copy and paste" clicks away. I can't stand the screen size of my "Smart Phone" and I have one of the largest available. I hate using the pop up key board that tries to "Help" me. Ever try to search for and paste a link to something that wasn't already planned for? Good luck. I love my PC....

Good news that the House stood strong on the DHS bill. We'll see what happens next - the fight is just beginning. While no small issue, there is one even more important. That is, the lawsuit of 36 States against the ACA regarding subsidies for States who didn't set up their own exchanges. It specifically says in Obamacare that their citizens will NOT receive subsidies. This will determine if our Supreme Court is just or just us on our own. Justice Roberts is going to have to do back flips to sustain such an unambiguous clause.

Japanese motorcycle giant Yamaha will join the four-wheel market by launching small cars in Europe as early as 2019 to meet rising demand for energy-efficient vehicles, a company official said Friday. The firm has been mulling manufacturing four-wheel vehicles for years, exhibiting a prototype 1,000 cc engine car and an electric-car battery at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. Yamaha is planning to build car plants in Europe to sell them in the region before 2020, the company spokesman said, without elaborating. "As small cars are already prevalent in Europe, our first car launch will be (there)," he said. "But we...

Nottaway High School Senior Tommy Adams and his mother were driving home from the Department of Motor Vehicles, when they spotted an elderly man trying to shovel snow from his driveway. However, it wasn't just an elderly man, but an elderly man with a walker attempting to do the shoveling on his own. Tommy wanted to help. "Tommy said 'Mamma stop the car,'" Teresa Adams told WTVR. "I got scared and asked 'what's wrong?'" "He said, 'there's an older man with a walker shoveling snow — I'll help him out,'" she added. Apparently the snow plows had passed by to...

Economic growth in the Philippines will overtake China's by 2016 as the former country continues to be an outperformer due to a strong domestic upswing in businesses and industry, growing foreign direct investments and record-high remittances from Filipinos working abroad, according to GDP forecasts in the recently released "2015 Annual Outlook" by Citibank. In turn, China, long time among the fastest growing countries in Asia and worldwide, is cooling down its economy to make GDP growth "more sustainable" as it is suffering from high public debt, reduced domestic consumption, over-investment in housing and infrastructure and regional economic imbalances. China will...

A wedding video is going viral, and not because of a cleverly choreographed bridal party dance or a flower girl throwing a tantrum. The part of the video that stole the show is the groom Brian Scott’s vows to his bride Whitney Kay’s young daughter, Brielle.

In many fields, graduate degrees offer distinct benefits for your extra years in school. Employees armed with a graduate education are often a more attractive hire and can make a higher salary than colleagues who have only a bachelor's degree. However, for some industries the benefits of going to graduate school are comparatively low and don't justify the extra investment. Using the recent "Hard Times" report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, we examined salary and unemployment data of experienced college graduates and experienced holders of graduate degrees. These are workers whose ages range from 35 to...

The girl's hand was stabbed during the fracas and she was taken for treatment to Broward Health North hospital in Deerfield Beach, Carter said. "This could have been much, much worse, because the mother of the bullied child was actually heading back to her vehicle to retrieve her firearm when we arrived on the scene," Carter said. Demps will be charged with felony possession of a firearm and aggravated battery, Carter said. The knife used in the stabbing belonged to Demps, and the other mother was also armed with a blade, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Richard Weikart: Should we encourage death or life? By Richard Weikart 02/23/2015 12:49 PM The California Legislature is considering Senate Bill 128 to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Perhaps some lawmakers see this as progressive, a way to promote humans rights and liberty. Oregon and Washington permit physician-assisted suicide, and Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland allow physicians to help people end their lives. Recently the Canadian Supreme Court struck down Canada’s law banning physician-assisted suicide. Is this the wave of the future? Or is it a descent into barbarism that undermines the value of human life?Debate over assisted suicide inflames passions...

If you’ve ever wanted to sleep with a giant lizard — and let’s face it, you only live once — one Japanese hotel has just the thing with its soon-to-be opened Godzilla Room. Hotel Gracery in Tokyo’s buzzing Shinjuku entertainment district offers the chance to catch some shuteye under the watchful gaze of a man-sized atomic mutant as he stomps on a miniature version of Tokyo in the corner of your room. For those extra-unsettling dreams, a giant Godzilla hand, complete with razor-like claws, looms over the twin beds to ensure you get maximum value from the Ą39,800 a night...

Immaculate Heart of Mary School of Still River, MA has withdrawn its marching band and float of Saint Patrick from this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade after learning that a small homosexual activist group will be allowed to march while publicly identifying its homosexuality. The school is compelled by the teachings of the Catholic Church to pull out. According to the Principal, Brother Thomas Dalton, “Catholics are forbidden to sponsor or even participate in an event which openly promotes unnatural and immoral behavior. The Church will never accept nor condone same sex marriage and the homosexual life style.” For 25...

The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net...

The Present and Future Timeline of Libertarian Foreign Policy RE: Iran I have long believed that Iran was THE problem in the Middle East, and given that they are clearly DaWon's heart throb thy are worthy of continued monitoring. Their presence on the word stage is a continued source of confusion for Libertinians who tend to fall into the pattern of thinking below. 1. All nation states are evil, in fact equally evil, so no nation state including the USA should engage in actions against other nation states like Iran (or even extra-national entities like ISIS). 2. Since all nation...

You’ve all heard the Patricia Arquette Oscars speech. You’ve all heard the statements about the “gender gap” and how women deserve “equal pay”. The problem is that it’s based on a premise… that’s entirely untrue. I prove it in the video.

As one of the most beguiling characters in English literature, Elizabeth Bennet has been described as high-spirited and honest to a fault. Little wonder, then, that the Duchess of Cornwall has admitted she rather admires the Pride And Prejudice heroine. Asked yesterday which storybook character she would like to be, Camilla initially gave the odd response of Winnie The Pooh. Her reason soon became clear, however, as she explained: ‘I would love to have my fingers stuck in honey’. She then revealed that her all-time heroine is Jane Austen’s feisty Lizzy, who defies social conventions – and her own prejudice...

Michelle Obama said Thursday that the U.S. has undergone a “culture change” in the five years since she started raising awareness about childhood obesity. But as she celebrated achievements on multiple fronts, the first lady also warned that the progress that’s been made is “incredibly fragile.” That’s because special interests “whose first priority is not our kids’ health” are “waiting for us to get complacent or bored and move on to the next trendy issue,” Mrs. Obama said at an annual health summit. She cited the fight over a recent child nutrition law as an example. “Even today, some folks...

Being gay is dangerous business in Russia, but it’s especially risky when you troll the country’s leading opponent of gay rights. The owners of a St. Petersburg lesbian nightclub, raided today by police, are learning that lesson. Infinity is a “girls-only” nightclub for “St. Petersburg’s most stylish young women.” On February 1, one of the club’s owners and several of her friends were flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg, when they spotted Vitaly Milonov, a lawmaker famous for initiating Russia’s crackdown on LGBT rights. Not fans of his conservative politics, the girls photographed themselves kissing one another in front of...